Tell your own story, the folks at Sundance like to say, and tell it your way. Hollywood has formulas that it believes will lead to sure-fire success - but what those formulas produce is never as interesting as what an artist can achieve by going his or her own way.

When it happens - and it always does happen, from "Pulp Fiction" to "Juno" - Hollywood is shocked that the public likes to discover something a bit different from the tried-and-true.

This week, we learned that staying true to one's art even pays off in one of the country's most visible venues: the top-rated TV show "American Idol."

Tuesday night's "showdown" (heavens to Murgatroyd, was the boxing metaphor the dumbest thing you ever saw or what?) revealed the two finalists, Utah's favorite son David Archuleta and Missouri's David Cook, as two sides of the corporate equation. Archuleta was the polished song machine, pumping out crowd-pleasing ballads with pitch-perfect phrasing. Cook was the rock hero, not so hot on a note-for-note level but great at connecting with the audience.

And their song choices, particularly on the third and final round, reflected their strategies: Archuleta sang "Imagine," his signature performance and one he sang early in the competition; Cook opted for Collective Soul's "The World I Know," a song he identified with but had never performed before that night.

The "American Idol" judges roasted Cook for what they deemed his folly. Simon Cowell said Cook should have picked one of his previous songs, such as "Billie Jean," rather than chance it with something new. Cowell declared the play-it-safe Archuleta winner by a knockout. (Before the results were announced Wednesday night, Cowell apologized to Cook, saying the performances were closer than he first thought. Or maybe Cowell got a look at the vote totals before the show and sought to ingratiate himself with the majority who didn't think Archuleta's performance was a knockout.)

I bought into the judges' reasoning, too. In a critique after Tuesday night's show, I opined that Cook blew it and Archuleta would win the title. "Archuleta stayed cocooned in his comfort zone," I wrote, "and it will probably pay off for him."

Oops.

Here's the conundrum: Team Archuleta did everything right. After all, producing safe and soothing sounds is what created past "Idol" champs like Ruben Studdard and Carrie Underwood. David A. sang beautifully, demonstrated his humility and played the game the way it's supposed to be played.

If anyone failed this season, it was the cynics - a group that includes Simon, Paula and Randy, as well as the critics like me. We held to H.L. Mencken's famous dictum that "nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public" and bought into the idea that the "Idol" voters would go for Archuleta's comfortable singing rather than the risk-taking Cook.

What we cynics forget is that risks can pay off.

A year ago, Hollywood observers were skeptical that a lesser-known comic-book title would succeed as a movie, especially with a 43-year-old actor with a bad reputation in the lead. But "Iron Man" is now the movie to beat this summer, having racked up $228 million in less than three weeks of release, according to Box Office Mojo.

The good news for Archuleta is that this strange TV trip is over - a blessed relief, based on the loose and smiling interview he gave to Fox 13's Max Roth after the show, a far cry from the nervous exchanges he had with Ryan Seacrest.

Now Archuleta can focus on a career making music. He does this armed with the wisdom that it doesn't hurt to take a chance.

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* SEAN P. MEANS writes a daily blog, "The Movie Cricket," at blogs.sltrib.com/movies. Send questions or comments to Sean P. Means, movie critic, The Salt Lake Tribune, 90 S. 400 West, Suite 700, Salt Lake City, UT 84101, or e-mail movies@sltrib.com.